Reid: Cordray appointment will stand

1/15/12 12:09 PM EST

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is sure that President Barack Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will withstand any challenges.

“I am confident that the president’s recess appointments will be held up in the courts,” Reid said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “I think without any question that will be the case.”

Obama’s move to install Cordray at the agency has outraged congressional Republicans, who have called it a “power grab” and an overreach of executive power. But Reid defended the appointment of Cordray at the CFPB and the appointment of three members to the National Labor Relations Board.

“The point is this: the president is entitled by our Constitution to appoint people,” Reid said. “We have consumers that need protection. That’s what this is all about. And that’s why it was such a good move by the president.”

Republicans don’t generally oppose Cordray himself nor his qualifications, but they want to restructure the watchdog agency that Cordray now helms. The Senate has been in a series of pro forma sessions — gaveling into session for a few minutes every three days — that are meant to prevent Obama from making recess appointments since the chamber is technically still in session.

Reid devised the tactic when President George W. Bush was in the White House to prevent the Republican from making controversial recess appointments. But what makes the situations different, according to Reid, is that the Nevada Democrat said he cooperated with Bush on his nominations.

“He didn’t have to worry about recess appointments because we were working with him,” Reid said of Bush. “I believe then and I believe now that the president has the right to make appointments.”

Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, responded Sunday afternoon: "Sen. McConnell did try to cooperate with the White House on nominations, offering to clear several if the president would simply acknowledge that he wouldn’t pull the unprecedented 'recess' appointment that even Sen. Reid said can’t be done. But the White House refused."